Europe’s biggest car maker, said Thursday that profits raced ahead in the first three months of this year, driven by strong demand worldwide for all of its brands.VW said in a statement it booked net profit of 3.186 billion euros ($4.222 billion) in the period from January to March, an increase of 86 percent from a year earlier. Underlying earnings, as measured by operating profit, revved up 10.2 percent to 3.209 billion euros, as the auto giant sold 11.3 percent more vehicles ― 2.26 million wor

MobilityApril 29, 2012

Playing an action videogame, even for just a short time, causes differences in brain activity and improvements in visual attention, Canadian researchers say.Twenty-five subjects who had not previously played videogames, taking part in research at the University of Toronto, played a game for a total of 10 hours in 1- to 2-hour sessions.Sixteen of the subjects played a first-person shooter game and,

TechnologyApril 29, 2012

South Korean stocks are expected to track developments in eurozone countries and global and domestic economic data next week, local analysts said Saturday.The country's key stock index, the KOSPI, closed at 1,975.35 on Friday, a dip of 0.1 percent from a week earlier, mainly due to North Korea's geopolitical risk, and persistent eurozone woes fueled by the downgrading of Spain's long-term credit r

April 28, 2012

Korea has no plans to suspend quarantine inspections on U.S. beef, Agriculture Minister Suh Kyu-yong said Friday, despite high public concern after a dairy cow in California was found infected with mad cow disease.A report from Washington confirmed that the infected animal was a dairy cow over 10 years old and that it had contracted a very rare “atypical” form of the brain-wasting disease, Suh told reporters during his visit to a quarantine facility in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.The minister said

April 27, 2012

Smartphones, displays up, chips down for tech giant in first quarterSamsung Electronics saw its first-quarter earnings hit an all-time high thanks to brisk global sales of smartphones, the company said on Friday.The Korean tech manufacturing giant said that its operating profit reached a record 5.85 trillion won ($5.15 billion) from January to March, up 98.4 percent from 2.95 trillion won a year earlier.It posted sales of 45.3 trillion won in the first quarter of 2012, up 22.4 percent from about

TechnologyApril 27, 2012

South Korean stocks closed 0.58 percent higher on Friday as positive earnings reports and overnight gains on Wall Street helped alleviate persistent eurozone concerns, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark KOSPI added 11.31 points to close at 1,975.35. Trading volume was moderate at 470 million shares worth 5.27 trillion won ($4.62 billion), with gainers outpacing losers 434 to 394.“The downgrading of Spain’s long-term credit rating by two notches, which ra

April 27, 2012

South Korea’s current account surplus widened sharply in March from the previous month, backed by strong auto and petrochemical exports, the central bank said Friday.The current account surplus reached $3.04 billion last month, up from $560 million in the black tallied in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The figure is larger than the $1.33 billion surplus tallied a year earlier. Asia’s fourth-largest economy logged a surplus of $3 billion in goods trade, fueled by strong overs

April 27, 2012

Following Hyundai Motor, affiliate Kia Motors reported all-time high quarterly earnings on the back of its robust vehicle sales in the overseas market.Kia said Friday that its operating profit reached 1.12 trillion won ($1 billion) during the first quarter of 2012, up 33.4 percent over the same period last year.The carmaker also saw its net profit climb by 26 percent to 1.2 trillion won. Its sales came to 11.7 trillion won.On a quarterly basis, the figures for the operating profit, net profit an

MobilityApril 27, 2012

Samsung Electronics Co. overtook Nokia Oyj as the world’s biggest vendor of mobile-phones last quarter, ending the Finnish company’s 14-year run as the global industry leader, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.Samsung shipped 93.5 million handsets in the first quarter, 36 percent more than a year earlier, and compared with 82.7 million for second-ranked Nokia, Strategy Analytics said in an e-mailed statement today. It is the first time the Suwon, South Korea-based company led in phone s

TechnologyApril 27, 2012

LG Electronics Co.’s latest Cinema 3-D Smart TVs are getting favorable reviews from influential IT media abroad.CNET Asia, the largest tech media website in Asia and Oceania, selected the LG 55LM960, the premium line of the 55-inch Cinema 3-D Smart TV, as its editor’s choice, calling it a “solid all-rounder featuring a sleek design along with most of the latest bells and whistles such as WiDi and gesture control.”CNET Asia gets about 1.6 million visitors and 4.6 million page views each month.“Th

IndustryApril 27, 2012

Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it has taken all necessary legal steps for the launch of its Facebook app, named the U.S. Olympic Genome Project.“As an Olympic sponsor, the company has followed the necessary protocol with the Olympic Committee and with the sports athletes before launching the app,” its spokesperson said.In a separate statement released to the media, Samsung Electronics said, it was “disappointed by the lawsuit,” and that “Samsung will continue to support Team USA and the

April 27, 2012